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Thumbs up for BME Hard

Yesterday’s Guess What Game featured a modification that is not too common in the community, that being self-amputation. A lot of comments were made, and questions asked, so as requested, here’s a look at one of Thumbamputee’s several amputations. The images in the post below come from the BME Hard amputation gallery, and are only a small segment of the many images sent in recently. To view all of them sign up for a BME Hard subscription today.

Due to the nature of the photos, they’re all hidden behind a break. Just hit the read more button if you’re interested in seeing the amputation healing process.

To start with, here’s the image that kicked off the resurgence of interest in amputation, Thumbamputee’s partial thumb amputation.

Unfortunately there were no pictures of the actual procedure, nor were there any of the removed digit. If you look closely, you will see that the thumb is wrapped below the cut, indicating that the entire thumb was wrapped prior to the cut, which I assume keeps everything in place, making for a cleaner removal. To give you a better idea of the wrapping, here’s a shot of the removal of the top segment of his right middle finger.

For those curious, there is a full set of pictures for the thumb, as well as the middle finger, and one of his toes. For now, lets get back to the thumb. Now once the part of the thumb has been removed, the next step of course is cleaning and treating the wound, followed by closing up the exposed tissue. By the next day, here’s what the thumb looked like, sutures and all.

Obviously a lot of irritated tissue, along with fresh sutures. Surprisingly not a tremendous amount of bruising, given the traumatic nature of the modification. One week later, we get a look close up on how the wound is closing.

By now the sutures have been removed and you can see how the remaining flesh was pulled over the opening to seal off the end. As dramatic as this photo may be, considering that only a week ago a segment of the thumb was completely removed, it’s looking like it is healing up well. At two weeks though, things look a lot different.

Almost all evidence of the sutures are gone, and there is only a brief hint of a scar along the top of the thumb. Just one week after this photo was taken, comes the final result.

So three weeks after the removal, the thumb appears to be fully healed, with no trace of there even being anything above the joint.

Just to be clear, this type of modification is exceedingly dangerous. The fact that this was performed at home alone, healing as well as it did, is a combination of luck and a lot of skill. By no means should anyone just slice off a part of their body without doing a tremendous amount of research first. The reasons for amputation vary per individual, to some it fulfills a sense of completion, where the offending body part needed to be excised in order to satisfy the person’s inner needs. To others the act of amputation can be sexually motivated. Whatever the reason, it is not something to be taken lightly, and even the slightest mistake can result in serious injury or death.

If you are interested in seeing the rest of the images sent in by Thumbamputee, but don’t have a BME Hard subscription, you can sign up at any time.

That is f-ing amazing that it healed that well in only 3 weeks! I know my split glans healed pretty quick, so heavy mods can and usually do heal fairly quick, but this is insane. I am close to calling “bullshit” on the healing time, but, I won’t. Congrats to Thumbamputee for having mutant healing powers, and really clean technigue apparently.

It would be interesting if you could contact this guy for an interview. I am curious as to what the motivation to the multiple amputations is. I remember reading an interview some years back with a multiple amputee that was intriguing to say the least.

I’m always curious how self-amputees explain their missing parts. It seems like it would be pretty socially unacceptable in most social circles to answer the question honestly, regardless of how you explain it. Does anyone have any insight?

thanks for posting this :-) i lost a toe two year ago and have a good friend who chose to have his little finger removed just before that as it was too crooked, i have a crooked pinky too and have always wondered about doing it. probably not brave enough myself X-) awesome to see it working out so well though!!

Imagine what you could say to explain it in social settings where “I cut it off” would maybe cause a little too much distress.
Shark attack, bears, hungry child, zombie attack, chopping up onions really fast.
I think it could be quite fun to see what you could get away with

very interesting! amputation has always been a part of the mod industry that i’ve never felt particularly connected to, so its definitely good to get an insight like this. and cease is right, i think it would be hilarious to constantly come up with a host of increasingly dramatic stories to explain an amputation.

I think the healing time is hard to believe for some because it’s associated with a part being cut off. Without any great knowledge I’d assume the wrapping used before cutting was pulling the skin mightily taught. When the segment of thumb was removed there would be enough slack in the skin to pull cleanly over the wound, thus skin is only knitting against skin, no great amount of fresh skin needs to grow.

Normally when we see an accidental amputation the allowance for access skin doesn’t get to happen, thus the totally new, far more sensitive scar skin grows. Like I said tho, no great knowledge in my reckoning, but he has done a very tidy job and I would be interested to see if sensations are heightened, as in my mind, thumb skin isn’t as sensitive to touch as the pads.

As someone who’s missing one digit and has two others substantially messed up from accidental injuries (all on the same hand), I simply cannot fathom why anyone would do it voluntarily .

I’m all for bod mod, tattoos, piercing, etc., but like Kevin said (presumably sarcastically) above, manual dexterity is overrated. Why in the hell the thumb, man? I mean, try a pinkie? I can tell you that being able to get to the last potato chip in a can of Pringles without dumping it out is nice, but… To each their own.

Enjoy the new configuration, Thumbamputee — here’s hoping you don’t discover you miss the ability to grasp things in your left hand too much.